1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for feeding garment appliance parts such as slide fastener component parts, buttons, hooks and the like, and has particular reference to an apparatus for feeding such parts of different types or colors successively and selectively one at a time for application onto a garment article.
2. Prior Art
There are known certain apparatuses designed to selectively feed and apply garment parts by switching one supply chute to another. One such apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-49163 in which there are provided a plurality of guide tracks collectively merged at a single chute connected to a parts applying means and a switching means selectively transferring parts such as male and female buttons to the respective tracks. Since the switching means is located at a midpoint of the tracks, it would become necessary to remove those button parts which have previously been accumulated in the lower or downstream portion of each track prior to operation of the switching means. In other words, the switching between the tracks cannot be readily effected unless the residue of unwanted parts on each of the tracks in cleared out.
Another prior apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 52-9022 in which a parts feed chute is removably mounted in place between a parts feeder and a parts holder so that the chute can be dismounted for removal of any residual unwanted parts for exchange with a supply of wanted parts. This exchanging operation is tedious and time-consuming as it requires interruption of the apparatus operation.